WotC WotC Removes Digital Content Team Credits From D&D Beyond

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According to Faith Elisabeth Lilley, who was on the digital content team at Wizards of the Coast, the contributor credits for the team have been removed from DDB.

The team was responsible for content feedback and the implementation of book content on the online platform. While it had been indicated to them that they would not be included in the credits of the physical books for space reasons, WotC apparently agreed to include them in the online credits.

It appears that those credits have now been removed.

I just discovered that I have been removed from book credits on D&D Beyond for books I worked on while at Wizards of the Coast.

Background:

While at Wizards (so after D&D Beyond was purchased) - with numerous books, my digital content team and I worked directly with the book team on the content, reading through rules drafts, suggesting changes, giving ideas, and catching issues. We had a full database of the content and understood exactly how it interacted.

Given that we were contributing to the content in the books, I felt it reasonable to request that team be added to the credits, but was informed the credits section was already too crowded with the number of people involved and many of the marketing team had already been dropped from credits. I felt strongly that anyone actually contributing to what is in the printed book should be credited though, so we agreed a compromise, that the team would be added to the credits page on D&D Beyond only, as there is no issue with "not enough space" on a web page.

I've added screenshots here that I had for some of the books.

At some point recently, those credits pages have been edited to remove the credits for me and the content team. Nobody reached out to let me know - it just happened at some point, and I only just noticed.

We've even been removed from the digital-only releases, that only released on D&D Beyond, such as the Spelljammer Academy drops.

I'm not angry or upset, just yet again, really disappointed, as somehow I expected better.

EDIT TO ADD MORE CONTEXT

It's not just getting the books online. I worked with Kyle & Dan to improve the overall book process from ideation to delivery across all mediums (you should have seen the huge process charts I built out...)

The lead designers would send over the rules for each new rulebook and we'd go through it, give feedback, highlight potential balance issues, look at new rules/design that was difficult to implement digitally and suggest tweaks to improve it etc etc. We even had ideas for new content that was then included in the book.

We'd go through the whole book in detail, catching inconsistencies and miscalculations, and I'm proud to say that we dramatically reduced the need for clarifications or errata on those books.

I'm not saying anyone on the design or book team was careless - far from it, they're consummate professionals - I am just illustrating the role my team and I had in contributing to the content, quality & success of the physical books, let alone the digital versions.

We should have been in the credits section of the physical printed book. We were part of the creative process. That was something we were actively discussing when I was informed I was being laid off.

Adding the team to the credits pages just on D&D Beyond was, as I mentioned above, a compromise while we figured things out.

My team were fully credited on the Cortex: Prime and Tales of Xadia books when D&D Beyond was still part of Fandom, before the Wizards acquisition.

In fact for those books we made sure to credit the entire digital development team, including developers, community managers and so forth - everyone who helped make the book successful.

I know that Wizards has hundreds of people involved and previously hit issues with the number of people in credits for D&D books, so pulled back from crediting some roles.

Would it be so bad to have to dedicate extra space in a book to the people whose contributions made the book successful?

I really don't think it would.
 

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Got a response from Wizards Customer Service re: my support request:
Greetings, Marandahir,

We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to bring your thoughts about the contributor credits for digital products to our attention.

It's important that your voice is heard and we assure you that feedback of this nature is particularly important to our company as we strive to build a better experience for you. All feedback, requests, and suggestions are brought to the appropriate teams for consideration and will not receive a direct response; however, you can keep an eye on our websites for any official announcements as they become available.

Thank you again for your willingness to get in touch and share your thoughts with us.

Sam‍
Wizards of the Coast | Customer Service Representative
Email support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week here.
 

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This is in the very first post on the subject:


Note that she's not talking about the DDB implementation when she says "book," she's referring to the content of books not yet finalized.

Yes. I understand that.

My point all the way along is that we have nothing to corroborate that claim. No one else is stepping up here and saying, “yup that’s how it worked”.
 


(Edit: My understanding is that they're expanding the D&D Beyond team significantly in order to work on the new VTT and more integration between it and online book access, and I can totally see someone in charge going "It was a maybe when there were ten of them, but now there are a hundred, and that's a no go.")

My understanding is that most of the D&D beyond team left Wizards and that they laid off the few that actually remained from DND Beyond.

So they may be staffing up for the new to work on the new VTT, but it is a bit misleading, because when people read "D&D Beyond team" I think most are going to think you mean the people like Ms. Lilley who actually built and developed DND Beyond and that team is not being expanded, they were eliminated (if you believe some reports, after a string of broken promises).
 


I said that I would update everyone on how discussions go with Wizards of the Coast on this matter.

On 31st July 2024 I created a D&D Beyond support ticket and sent an email to the HR team. My email was forwarded on through HR up to Kerry McDonald (HR Director) on 8th August.
It's been 6 weeks since I reached out to try to get this resolved.

I feel I have given Wizards of the Coast plenty of time to respond to me in any meaningful capacity, but it seems that Adam, Cam, Joseph, and I are not to be extended the courtesy of a response.

It makes me sad that Wizards of the Coast has such disrespect for former employees that they do something like this, and then won't even respond. Not even to say they're looking into it, or to offer an explanation why this was done.

End result, I am left with only one conclusion - someone senior at Wizards of the Coast decided that I, and my former team, should be removed from the credits of the books we helped create and I have no idea why.

As evidenced multiple times over the last few years, the culture at Wizards of the Coast is to refuse to acknowledge the consequences of their actions, unless there is public pressure and a financial impact to them for not responding.

Businesses shouldn't behave this way, especially not one that is part of the TTRPG community.

Full text of my email:
I am hoping you can help me address an issue.

I am a former employee of Hasbro UK.

I used to work for Wizards of the Coast (via Hasbro UK) on D&D Beyond, providing leadership for the Content Team and others. I also had a direct role working with the D&D Studio to improve the overall pipeline to digital, which included the Content Team and I reviewing game design and content for books, providing feedback and ideas, resulting in an overall increase in the quality of the printed books as well as the digital product.

While it would have been correct to credit myself and the team within the printed Dungeons & Dragons books for our contributions - something that was being actively arranged at the point I was laid off - it was agreed that a suitable interim measure would be to add us to the digital version of the credits on D&D Beyond for each book we worked on.

It has been brought to my attention that recently these credits have been removed from the following sources on D&D Beyond:
  • Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
  • Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
  • Journeys through the Radiant Citadel
  • Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
  • Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
  • Spelljammer Academy

I am sure you understand just how important it is to receive credit for work in this industry, especially for the members of the Content Team, who may well need those credits when applying for future work.

I look forward to you letting me know that this situation has been rectified and the credits restored.

Thank you

For those who may ask about Hasbro UK/Wizards - I live in the UK. When D&D Beyond was acquired by Wizards of the Coast, while I continued to work on D&D Beyond, as part of the Wizards leadership team, my employment contract was transferred across to Hasbro UK. My role was, "Manager, Product Management" with a working job title of, "Senior Producer, digital"

Other Wizards of the Coast staff in the UK are also employed through Hasbro UK.

Screenshots provided (with email addresses blurred out)
 

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As evidenced multiple times over the last few years, the culture at Wizards of the Coast is to refuse to acknowledge the consequences of their actions, unless there is public pressure and a financial impact to them for not responding.

Businesses shouldn't behave this way, especially not one that is part of the TTRPG community.
This entire situation has me scratching my head at the why of it all. I am so sorry this happened to you and your team. I wish I was more of a customer to WotC to have any impact or pull with them.

As we've seen in this thread, the importance of credits in products is controversial, which is another thing that makes me scratch my head.

I wish your team all the best, and feel free to PM me any projects you're working on so I can support them!
 

I said that I would update everyone on how discussions go with Wizards of the Coast on this matter.

On 31st July 2024 I created a D&D Beyond support ticket and sent an email to the HR team. My email was forwarded on through HR up to Kerry McDonald (HR Director) on 8th August.
It's been 6 weeks since I reached out to try to get this resolved.

I feel I have given Wizards of the Coast plenty of time to respond to me in any meaningful capacity, but it seems that Adam, Cam, Joseph, and I are not to be extended the courtesy of a response.

It makes me sad that Wizards of the Coast has such disrespect for former employees that they do something like this, and then won't even respond. Not even to say they're looking into it, or to offer an explanation why this was done.

End result, I am left with only one conclusion - someone senior at Wizards of the Coast decided that I, and my former team, should be removed from the credits of the books we helped create and I have no idea why.

As evidenced multiple times over the last few years, the culture at Wizards of the Coast is to refuse to acknowledge the consequences of their actions, unless there is public pressure and a financial impact to them for not responding.

Businesses shouldn't behave this way, especially not one that is part of the TTRPG community.
This is disappointing and their actions still make no sense to me.
 



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